Economic Justice
Education
Gender and Sexuality
Working Films News

Reel Films at Sundance!

November 30, 2012 BY Molly Murphy

The line up for the 2013 Sundance Film Festival has been announced and we are so excited to see filmmakers that we’ve worked with on this list! Congratulations to the teams behind American Promise, Citizen Koch and God Loves Uganda.

American Promise follows two African-American boys from middle class families as they navigate their way through 12 years at a prestigious New York City Prep school. The film is part of our Reel Education t collaboration, in which nine documentaries about various education issues came together for our residential training in February 2011.

Citizen Koch is the latest film by Carl Deal and Tia Lesson (Trouble the Water) that tells a story about money, power and democracy in the aftermath of the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down limits on corporate political spending. The film was one of six films that attended our Reel Economy residency held in July 2012 in Washington, DC.

God Loves Uganda follows American and Ugandan religious leaders fighting “sexual immorality” and missionaries trying to convince Ugandans to follow Biblical law. Paige Ruane, the films’ outreach coordinator, attended our Reel Change: Managing Social Issue Film Campaign residency last spring in Washington, DC. At the residency, Paige along with a room full of filmmakers learned how to make strategic plans to get their films and media projects out to the right audiences and form effective partnerships with organizations working on the issues in their film.

We are thrilled about each! Be sure to check them out when you’re at Sundance.

RELATED NEWS

Get to Know the 2025 Rural Cinema Cohort

At its heart, Rural Cinema is about harnessing the power of story to drive change. The program trains environmental justice organizers to use film as a tool to bring people together, spark meaningful conversations, and inspire action on the challenges their communities face. With hands-on training, access to films, and funding to host their own series, participants transform storytelling into tangible, local impact. This year, we’re excited to shine a spotlight on the 2025 Rural Cinema cohort, a remarkable group of organizations from across the country that are reshaping what’s…

Impact Kickstart 2026: Call For Applications

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=""]For a documentary film to make a difference, a solid strategy for audience engagement and strong partnerships are key. Filmmakers often lack time to do this work themselves or the expertise and resources to make an impact campaign happen. Emerging filmmakers and underrepresented filmmakers can face the biggest hurdles, despite the immense potential of their projects. Working Films’ response to this challenge is the Impact Kickstart, a program offering partnership and strategy development support to underrepresented filmmakers with feature-length films that hold great promise to catalyze action to address…

Story Leads to Community: Ava Auen-Ryan, Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement

How do film screenings build community in rural and small towns? Andy Myers, Director of Campaigns and Strategy, chats with Ava Auen-Ryan, community organizer with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI). They discuss how relationship building is at the center of rural organizing. Leading with intentionality, organizers can use the power of story and community film screenings to bring people into their membership base and build power to create social change. Andy: I always think of film as a great tool specifically for organizers that work with the people.…